so i am looking at the way the economy affects our lives, the way the economy gets into our bodies. it is a book that i wrote because my body arrived in the desert under particular circumstances in the winter of 1997 when i was broke, broken and on drugs. i was in mexico city and lucky enough to go under a book contract from new york. i got an advance from the new york publishers to write a book, a dream come true and in mexico city by november of 1997 i crossed the deadline and didn't have a word written and i was broke and i called the only friend i could count on at that point because my life style led me to destroy a lot of personal relationships. i called a performance artist in costa rica who lived in the united states for many years and met for the solidarity network, art and politics in the 1980s and i said [speaking spanish] and she happened to be in the village of joshua tree, california at that time. there are circumstances that led her from the tropics, how did she wind up in the desert? everybody has a story in the desert how they got there. she said we will take care o